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Career coaching on the rise among recent grads and young professionals

Five years ago, Gwen Elliot had a dream: Getting a job at the Oprah Winfrey Network.

When she graduated from Ryerson University in 2010, armed with lots of ambition and a degree in radio and television, she headed off to California. Elliot had landed an internship at MTV in its series development department — not too shabby for a new grad — and quickly got the chance to interview at OWN, Oprah’s blossoming channel.

It was a dream come true. Almost.

Elliot didn’t get the job and couldn’t keep living in California, so she moved back home with her parents.

“I went from OWN in Los Angeles to Beaverton, Ontario, with no idea what to do,” Elliot recalls.

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Four years later, with her producing and marketing career in Toronto hitting its stride, Elliot decided to hire a career coach.

“I really wanted to start my own thing — I couldn’t even articulate what it was — but I knew I wanted to start something new,” the 26-year-old says over the phone from her King St. W. office at consumer tech startup The Blueprint.

That coach was Sarah Vermunt, founder of Toronto-based coaching company Careergasm. Vermunt says she didn’t set out to work with recent grads like Elliot when she began coaching full-time about a year ago, but quickly realized there’s a growing demand from this demographic.

“It’s a significant chunk of my business already,” Vermunt says. “Maybe up to 40 per cent of my clients are between the ages of early 20s to early 30s.”

The Star chatted with numerous Toronto career coaches who say recent grads are increasingly using coaches to get their careers in motion, ditch dead-end jobs and pursue their passions.

“In the last couple of years I’ve had more inquiries from that demographic,” says Eileen Chadnick, a certified coach with Big Cheese Coaching. “I think there’s more of an awareness of personal coaching.” When she started in the business more than 10 years ago, she says, it wasn’t something people knew much about.

Etobicoke-based coach Jennifer Bouley works with clients throughout the GTA, plus some from as far away as London, England. “I would say 50 to 60 per cent of my people are recent grads or in their 20s or early 30s,” she says.

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Elliot began working with Vermunt last September and says the month of sessions helped her figure out what she wanted to do next, while keeping her accountable. It helps to have someone “10 steps ahead” to shape your vision, she explains.

“I would meet up with Sarah for coffee and it was a really organic conversation,” Elliot recalls. “She wasn’t telling me what to do, but more using her own techniques, questions and curiosity to give me the space to share what I wanted to do.”

The coaching experience cost Elliot about $1,000. She says it was worth it but may be beyond the budget of many 20-somethings, especially those without jobs. Cue the parental contributions.

Leah Halin, 20, hasn’t even graduated from Ryerson University yet, but used Vermunt as a career coach to prepare for internship interviews. “My mother offered to pay for it because she really wanted me to be confident in my interviewing,” Halin says, adding it cost around $400 for two sessions.

Soon after, Halin landed a summer internship at Marblemedia, and got the chance to read television scripts and work alongside a senior executive. “I fell in love with the work of pre-production, developing stories and plot lines,” Halin says.

While the demand among recent grads for coaching services is clear, it’s a bit surprising. Typically, career coaches are used by older professionals trying to climb the corporate ladder or switch fields. But coaches say the benefits are the same for younger workers.

“They get energized and confident, even though they don’t always have a track record,” says Chadnick, adding coaching goes beyond the basic mechanics of a job search. It’s also about creating your own narrative and building your confidence, and the value of coaching lasts beyond getting that first job. “It teaches you a lot about yourself.”

Some young grads do need to start at square one and coaching can help there, too. Bouley’s clients are often figuring out the basics of networking, writing resumés, and doing interviews.

“Some are very organized and inquisitive, and they know what to do but they don’t know how to read between the lines. They have these skills and amazing accomplishments but they don’t think they can use them,” she says. “Others are totally disorganized and unprepared.”

Vermunt says recent grads often have a sense of paralysis that coaches can help overcome. “People realize they don’t want a career in what they studied, or (their) parents are pushing them in a certain direction — or they do know what they want but it’s almost like they’re afraid to want it.”

Two months after working with Vermunt, Elliot started a business venture focused on helping people develop strategies for launching creative projects like websites and podcasts. She’s hoping to grow it as a side business alongside her marketing job at The Blueprint and her producing work for an online show called The Naked Entrepreneur, which was recently picked up by the Oprah Winfrey Network in Canada and is set to debut in January. (Elliot is thrilled, of course.)

In a way, through her new side project, Elliot is becoming a coach herself.

“I know the value I’m bringing to people,” she says. “I’m literally helping them figure out what they want to do.”

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